I'm not specifically speaking about public vs private spending. I'm talking about the general idea that in order to achieve pleasure from pretty much anything, you have to do something pointless. Want a better meal? Put seasoning on that ****, or buy more expensive ingredients, or expend more effort than is necessary to prepare and cook it. But that's ultimately a waste of time since you could have just eaten with only gaining sustenance in mind. And the **** wants that?

The same basic principle holds true for a great many things that would make life a much less interesting prospect if they didn't exist, from aesthetically pleasing architecture vs. utilitarian architecture, to buying and playing video games, to taking a walk in the park when you could be working. And often the money, time, and effort spent on these frivolous activities could be logically said to have been better spent on more practical concerns that would more obviously benefit society while ultimately making it boring and soulless.

And this is one great reason I support space exploration, because it provides cultural value to the human race that makes us a vastly more aesthetically interesting species than if we abandoned it to start crunching numbers.

Uh oh haven't solved every issue on earth better stop doing everything but focus on poverty.

Reminds me of this nonsense

Like when Republicans complain about spending on welfare when we're already spending too much on earmarks and therefore we shouldn't spend money on anything until political corruption has been solved?

Space exploration can help us better understand our own atmosphere and what makes it unique to make your fantasy a reality.

You don't want us to spend money on something innocuous like space exploration, but you want to give humanity the ability to potentially destroy the Earth's climate through the law of unintended consequences? Have you no imagination?

That sounds identical to the situation you described earlier.

My post was about "where the **** is the money going to come from".

Dip****, I said that science has already proven there's nothing in our own universe other than the slim hope for Europa.

Learn to comprehend instead of simply knee-jerk reacting in order to try and get a rise out of me.

Can someone please install an IGNORE function to this board?

What the **** are you talking about, you senile old bat?

Source for this super wrong claim please.

Or would you rather I just have science prove itself wrong, as it's intended to do?
http://www.space.com/35806-trappist-1-facts.html

And let's not have any more name calling. I don't want to have to strike back and really hurt your feelings or anything like that.

Would you agree that preserving the arts, our national parks, museums, making sure our children get good educations, taking care of our elderly, protecting the environment, maintaining our infrustucture are all great things for the United States? Not sure why you are talking about the human race - are you assuming that Russia, China, Europe, and the rich Arabs nations are going to start writing checks to fund the US so they can once again stare at the stars?

This is all about Trump wanting to spend trillions of dollars that this country doesn't have unless they gut the **** out of a lot of essential stuff.

I mean he's already gutting environmental stuff so that he can dump another $56 billion into our military so they can buy another 10,000 or so $200 toilet seats.

To be honest I find your attitude on this subject pretty naive and detached from whats currently going on in our country.